Comcast Roundup: E-mail monetization accusations, and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup,
The ability to bookmark your Comcast.net e-mail account page has changed, gripes a reader, who tipped us to the problem, and it’s all for advertising.
(Send us your Philly tech and innovation tips, insight or story ideas!)
That reader says no longer can you bookmark your e-mail account page and browse directly there. Now bookmarks, old or new, send you to the Comcast.net homepage, forcing extra clicks to their “monetized articles & ads,” the reader says.
Sounds like conspiracy theory, a Comcast spokesman told Technically Philly.
Older bookmarks may need to be updated once more because of the final completion of a new Comcast.net e-mail iteration that began rollout last year, says Charlie Douglas, the director of communications for Comcast’s corporate online products.
“I don’t think it’s any different than Yahoo or almost any other e-mail service,” Douglas says. It should be noted that some, like Gmail, can have direct bookmarks.
Douglas was unaware of any push for increased click-rates on the Comcast.net homepage by e-mail users, which likely would be negligible for canceling those using bookmarks anyway.
A Philly.com executive jumps ship, Comcast ain’t the worst company in the country and four other Comcast stories you should read, after the jump.
Organized by importance for your ease:

• Editor & Publisher reports that former Philly.com President Eric Grilly has been named executive vice president and chief digital officer for Comcast Sports Group. Because when you think Web innovation, you think newspapers.
• Consumerist.org dubs AIG the Worst Company in America, beating out Comcast in the annual reader-voted contest, which we reported on last week. Someone in the comments inexplicably suggests Comcast should get a “bottle of urine” for a runner-up prize.
• PC World reports on a U.S. Senate push for new net neutrality laws, amid Comcast’s battle with the FCC, which we mentioned last week.
• A Huffington Post blogger calls interest from cable comapnies to charge heavy Internet users as “the end of the Internet.” The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez has reported on Comcast’s take on “excessive use.”
• The Salem News reports on Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis and his roots in Peabody, Mass. The lone comment on the story in Angelakis’s hometown paper basically calls him a fat cat for making $11.2 million last year.
• The Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez reports that Comcast was investigating what made an undisclosed number of users lose phone service for 90 minutes on Tuesday. Yeah, we didn’t hear anything more about it, either. …Checking…

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.